During the manufacture of electrical cable assemblies and subassemblies, terminals crimped or otherwise terminated to the ends of wires are inserted into specially formed cavities disposed in a connector housing. These terminals generally have barbs or some other self locking or retaining tabs that interact with the walls of the cavity to retain the terminal therein. The connector housing may have a relatively large number of such cavities arranged in parallel rows, on closely spaced centers. The design of inserting machines of the present type present several wire and connector handling problems as a result of the need for very closely spaced terminals. It is difficult to design parts with adequate clearance to permit the insertion of terminals into cavities which have adjacent cavities that have already received terminals because of the presence of the wires extending from the previously inserted terminals. The alignment and guidance of the terminal during insertion into the cavity is a particularly difficult problem and is addressed by the present invention.
Modern apparatus for inserting terminals and associated wires into cavities in connector housings typically include a connector housing holder which accurately locates and positions the housing with respect to an insertion center line. Additionally included are a wire gripper which holds the wires and moves it axially into the cavity of the housing and a guide member which surrounds the guides movement of the terminal that is crimped on the end of the wire. Such a wire gripper and guide member are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,779,334, which issued Oct. 25, 1988 to Boutcher, Jr., and which is incorporated by reference as though set forth verbatim herein. The guide member of Boutcher very accurately positions the terminal on a known center line for insertion into the cavity. This, of course, requires that the cavity also be accurately positioned on the same center line prior to insertion. It is the usual practice to position the connector housing by means of an X-Y robotic table which can be computer controlled to move the housing very precisely in the X and Y directions to position the desired cavity in alignment with the insertion center line. This type of apparatus usually locates on external surfaces of the connector housing and assumes that the cavities are a known distance from these locating surfaces Such an apparatus is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,837,926 which issued June 13, 1989 to Boutcher, Jr., and which is incorporated by reference as though set forth verbatim herein. Connector housings having only two cavities each are shown in Boutcher, however, when a large number of cavities are present, the distances from the individual cavities to the locating surfaces vary due to manufacturing tolerance build-up. With a large number of very small, closely spaced cavities, the position of any cavity relative to the locating surfaces cannot be determined sufficiently accurately to assure adequate alignment during insertion of the terminal. The present invention overcomes this problem by means of a novel guide member and connector housing holder.